PgcEdit new VTS blanking works great pre-DVD-RB

[absinthe]

I've been messing about a bit with the new PcgEdit function to "blank all title PGCs in DVD" (thanks blutach), and I just wanna report that blanking all non-main-movie titlesets (or whichever ones you want, I guess) before opening as a DVD Rebuilder project has so far worked perfectly for me.

Now I know there's been debate about whether DVD-RB is really ideal for use on files which have been preprocessed, and there had been some issues with failure at various stages using such files. But I know jdobbs was working on those things. Also, I've just read in the DVDRB forum that apparently the PRO version has a "movie only" mode, though I think that also removes the menu.

Anyway, the long and the short of it is: if you like DVDRB and want to make a backup of a disc, movie only, with original menus intact, removing everything else before processing through DVDRB, I think this may be a very good way.

-abs

[lark]

i don't quite get this movie+menu -case.
why would you leave menu intact, if there's only the movie available.
imho menu must be modified to correspond the new content of the disk.

regards
t :)

[absinthe]

Originally posted by lark
i don't quite get this movie+menu -case.
why would you leave menu intact, if there's only the movie available.
imho menu must be modified to correspond the new content of the disk.

regards
t :) Very useful for visual navigation, to see what subtitle options, etc. are available. After all, we back up a lotta DVDs -- who's to say that in 3 years I'll remember any given title has a commentary track, subs, etc.

I also use MenuEdit to kill the buttons leading to special features, etc. (anything that's no longer there). I think PgcEdit can now do this also, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

Besides, call me weird, but when I put in a DVD I want to see a menu ... immediately!. No FBI warnings, no commercials, no studio logos, and no not even a movie :). I want a menu.

-abs

[CoNS]

You can safely use the blanking features of both PgcEdit and VobBlanker for preprocessing the DVDs before using DVD-RB.Originally posted by absinthe
I've been messing about a bit with the new PcgEdit function to "blank all title PGCs in DVD" (thanks blutach), and I just wanna report that blanking all non-main-movie titlesets (or whichever ones you want, I guess) before opening as a DVD Rebuilder project has so far worked perfectly for me.If you blank all title PGCs in the DVD, this will blank out the main movie, too, right? So there's nothing left for DVD-RB to process as it doesn't encode menu vobs?

Or do you mean blank out all title PGCs and then afterwards use the PGC replace function in VobBlanker to add the main movie back to the original DVD structure and then use DVD-RB?

[jeanl]

CoNS, the name of the PgcEdit utility is misleading! I too thought it would nuke everything (I even thought blutach was kidding when he asked for it, or maybe missing a few marbles ;) ) but in fact, it's interactive. You have to confirm for each VTS so when you get to the movie VTS, you just say "no", but it's still much much faster than doing it "by hand". It's great!
Now if r0lZ was a one-click type of guy (which he's not), PgcEdit would figure out which VTS is the movie's and not offer to nuke it. But r0lZ isn't that kind of guy :D.
Jeanl

[absinthe]

Originally posted by jeanl
You have to confirm for each VTS so when you get to the movie VTS, you just say "no", but it's still much much faster than doing it "by hand". It's great!
Jeanl What he said :cool:

Something I can't quite figure is why it takes VobBlanker some time to blank VOBs, yet PgcEdit seems to do it instantly.

-abs

[jamesdmc]

lark wrote: "i don't quite get this movie+menu -case."
One word: kids. You sit down to watch a movie after putting The Little One to bed and 20 minutes into the movie she starts crying. Gritting your teeth and reminding yourself that she’s your flesh and blood, you pause the movie, go give her the pacifier, rub her back, shush her as soothingly as possible (but don’t pick her up unless all else fails! You’ll spoil her!), but nothing works. You finally give up on watching a movie tonight because she’s teething and this scene will play out a couple more times before the night is through. The next night, pop the DVD into the player and go to the…chapter menu to pick up where you left off.

Another reason: you have two places to watch DVDs in your house. One is the semi-dedicated home theater with 5.1 surround sound (and a treadmill…and some weights…neither of which ever get used). The other is a 27” Sony hooked up to stereo speakers. When you decide where you’re going to watch the movie you can go to the audio menu and choose the appropriate option.

lark continued:“why would you leave menu intact, if there's only the movie available.”
I can understand the reason for this question, but in addition to the little anecdotes I mention above, the menu is like a front end for the DVD. It’s a place to go back and get my bearings after some interruption.

lark, being the cunning liquist he is, continued to say:“imho menu must be modified to correspond the new content of the disk.”
That’s what programs like DVD ReMake Pro, IFOEdit, and PgcEdit are for. Learn ‘em, live ‘em, love ‘em!

Absinthe wrote: "Besides, call me weird, but when I put in a DVD I want to see a menu ... immediately!. No FBI warnings, no commercials, no studio logos, and no not even a movie:). I want a menu."
Absinthe, if you’re weird, so am I. I feel EXACTLY the same way!

[jeanl]

jamesdmc, I agree with everything you said. I really don't like movie-only backups. I wish you guys would convince the nuckle-heads at videohelp about this! The consensus over there seems to be that if you're only going to keep the movie, why bother with the menu?

In any case, there's 1 feature I really wish by settop player had: the possibility to remember where we stopped playback on a given DVD. I sometimes have to watch a movie over 2 nights, (or the kids, a bit in the morning a bit in the afternoon), and having this feature would be great. I know PowerDVD has that, and most soft players I'm sure. I just don't understand why settop boxes don't. Even my car stereo remembers what I was playing when I last turned it off!

Anyway. I'm really glad for r0lZ's nuke-them-all utility. :)
jeanl

[absinthe]

I know how you feel. I've always hated DVDs without menus. I used to despise those early Warner Bros. DVDs that went straight to the Warner Bros. logo and then movie as soon as you put in the disc, even though the DVD did have a menu.

I mean, that's like going to a restaurant and having them plop a plate of food in front of you before you ever get a chance to order.

Then there are stupid DVDs that, while they will go to the menu first, they will eventually start playing after a certain time whether you want them to or not.

Yet another reason: I often pop in a DVD in preparation of watching a movie. I.e, go ahead and stick the disc in so it'll be cued up while I put the kids to bed, or whatever. How annoying to come back and find out that the credits are already over.

-abs

[Surf]

Sir James of dmc,

You're a boon to this forum! By the way one got to join another exclusive but easy to join club called Fatherhood to enjoy more judiciously his er, anecdotes. I don't even have a treadmill! What weights? "Bring up that 5lb slab of Outside Round from the freezer!" Yelled the instructor. All my backups must have only one ac6 and the English sub-title(sigh). Most of my viewing pleasure is late at night, no Dolby labs!

I used to be a chop-chop author until the birth of PgcEdit & VobBlanker & 2COOL & Jeani.:D

After fileting the movie, the space occupied by the menu is less than 1% !!

It's called Neutron Bomb, Jeani !

[jeanl]

Originally posted by Surf

It's called Neutron Bomb, Jeani !
oh OK, OK. The name is jane, not jeani! :D

[lark]

ok, maybe i should have explained myself a bit better.

1st of all, i like to have the menu. definitely. and it must be the 1st thing i see. period.

2ndly, i don't like to see any extra in the menu, if it's not in the disk. ever seen "this feature has been removed"? ever tried a key to a lock just to find out it doesn't work? if there's something in the menu, it must be available.

3rdly, <and i know this doesn't make much sense or at least justify the time it takes> i don't like to have unneeded (=unreferenced) menu PGCs lying on the disk. in most cases they're just some 200k, but in same motion cases, they can be megs, even hundreds of megs. i want to remove them before doing letting rb do the rest. <not to mention that i want to remove everything else that i don't want to see before firing rb>.

4thly, depending on the motion, intro & outro scenes, i sometimes leave motion menus intact, sometimes i still them.

and what goes to the chapter menu. i really like that as well. just as a ref, last weekend i added one to a dvd that didn't have one...

1 more thing did just pop into my eyes
Something I can't quite figure is why it takes VobBlanker some time to blank VOBs, yet PgcEdit seems to do it instantly.
was this irony or a real question?
pgcedit doesn't blank the VOBs. it just marks them (well, actually IFOs), whereas you need vobblanker (or rb) to really remove the unneeded stuff from them.

regards
t :)

[jeanl]

Originally posted by lark

was this irony or a real question?
pgcedit doesn't blank the VOBs. it just marks them (well, actually IFOs), whereas you need vobblanker (or rb) to really remove the unneeded stuff from them.
It's confusing! When it's a full VTS, then pgcedit does remove everything. Otherwise, it does not... I mentioned the confusion here (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&postid=646279#post646279). Another user in another forum was also wondering...
jeanl